How we tier memorable phone numbers — the transparent methodology

Memorable phone numbers vary enormously in price. Two superficially similar 0800 numbers can be £200 apart — one listed at £400 outright, one at £600. Why?

Most UK carriers treat the tiering as a black box: you ask for a quote, get a number back, no explanation. We do it differently. This is the transparent methodology — what each tier means, what we look at when scoring a number, and the weighting that drives the price you see on the listing.

The aim isn't to convince you our tiering is objective (it isn't — memorability is a judgement call). It's to be honest about how we make the call.

Our tier ladder

We use six tiers, mapped to roughly the price-band structure Ofcom regulates plus our own scoring on top:

• Standard — any working number with no memorable pattern. With Membership, unlimited and free.
• Bronze — single soft pattern. Light repetition (one triple-digit run), a sensible ascending block, brand-name fit but only on one chunk. Typical price £99–£300 outright.
• Silver — clean pattern, slightly stronger. Triple-3 + matching cadence, mirror on the last 6 digits, keypad-spelled relevant word. £300–£800 outright.
• Gold — strong, multiple patterns combining. Clean quadruple, full mirror, keypad-spelled common word. £800–£2,500 outright.
• Platinum — iconic. Two or more strong patterns intersecting. Full repeating runs, palindromes. £2,500–£10,000 outright.
• Cherished — the rarest. Numbers like 1010 1010 or 100 1000 across multiple chunks, perfect mirror or famously branded. Sold once, sometimes after decades on the market. £10,000+ outright.

Standard numbers are unlimited with Membership at no charge. Everything above is outright purchase — you pay once, the number is yours, you can port it away if you ever leave.

The 5 things we score

When a new number lands in our inventory, we score it against five dimensions. Each contributes to the tier assignment.

1. Repetition score

How much of the number is repeating digits, and how clean the repetition is.

• 0 = no repetition
• 1 = a doubled digit (XX somewhere in the number)
• 2 = a clean triple (XXX)
• 3 = a clean quadruple (XXXX)
• 4 = an iconic run (XXXXX or longer, especially with 0 or 1)

2. Cadence score

How cleanly the number divides into 2–3 spoken beats. We read every candidate aloud. If it reads in three natural beats with a recognised pattern in each, full marks. If it forces an awkward break, lower score.

• 0 = no natural cadence
• 1 = one good chunk break
• 2 = clean 3-beat cadence
• 3 = clean 3-beat cadence where each beat is itself patterned

3. Mirror / palindrome score

Symmetry around any axis.

• 0 = no symmetry
• 1 = partial mirror (last 4 digits palindromic, e.g. 6776)
• 2 = clean 6-digit mirror
• 3 = full palindrome of the user part

4. Sequence score

Counted patterns — ascending, descending, multiplied, combinations.

• 0 = no sequence
• 1 = short counted block (123 or 246)
• 2 = full ascending or descending 4+ digits
• 3 = mathematical pattern across the whole user part

5. Keypad / brand fit score

For 0800 numbers and shorter codes specifically — does it spell something on the keypad? Does the digit pattern align with common brand elements (a year, an iconic number, a dialling shortcut)?

• 0 = no keypad mapping
• 1 = a partial word
• 2 = a clean common word (HELP, TAXI, FREE, NUMBER)
• 3 = a distinctive brand fit (matches a trading name, a memorable year, a category-defining word)

From score to tier

We add the five scores. A perfect number would max all five (5 × 4 = 20 if we used the longer repetition scale), but in practice the cap is around 12–14. Aggregate scores map to tiers approximately:

• 0–1 → Standard
• 2–4 → Bronze
• 5–7 → Silver
• 8–10 → Gold
• 11–13 → Platinum
• 14+ → Cherished

We then make a final editorial judgement on whether the number genuinely "feels" the tier — sometimes a formally-low-scoring number has a quality the rubric misses (it just sounds great), and sometimes a formally-high-scoring number reads worse than the maths suggests. We adjust either way and the listing price reflects the final tier, not the raw score.

Worked examples

0800 947 6132

• Repetition: 0 — all distinct digits
• Cadence: 0 — no natural break
• Mirror: 0
• Sequence: 0
• Keypad: 0 — doesn't spell anything
• Score 0 → Standard, free with Membership

0800 333 3333

• Repetition: 4 — seven identical digits
• Cadence: 2 — clean 0800–333–3333
• Mirror: 0
• Sequence: 0
• Keypad: 1 — partial (3 = DEF, weak fit)
• Score 7 → Silver/Gold borderline. We'd list around £800–£1,200.

0800 100 1000

• Repetition: 3 — clean quadruple zeros
• Cadence: 3 — perfect 0800–100–1000
• Mirror: 2 — partial mirror around the central 0s
• Sequence: 1 — implied (a hundred, a thousand)
• Keypad: 1 — clean dial pattern
• Score 10 → Gold/Platinum borderline. We'd list £3,000–£6,000.

0800 80 10 80

• Repetition: 2 — paired repetition
• Cadence: 3 — clean 0800–80–10–80 (3-beat)
• Mirror: 3 — full palindrome
• Sequence: 0
• Keypad: 1 — clean dial pattern
• Score 9 → Platinum (the Direct Line number is on a band of its own due to brand fame, but a similar 0800 80 X0 80 today would price ~£5,000).

How we set the listing price

Tier gives a band. We then pick a price inside the band based on:

• Ofcom regulatory band — the wholesale band the number sits on sets a floor (we don't list below cost)
• Comparable inventory — what we've recently sold or held at similar scores
• Time on market — numbers that have been listed for many months sometimes drop a step
• Brand demand — a numbers like 0800 TAXI 24 commands a premium even if the formal score is mid because the demand is concentrated in a single industry

Why publish the methodology?

Three reasons:

• You can argue with us. If you think our scoring of a specific number is wrong, you have something concrete to push back on. We've moved numbers up or down a tier multiple times because a customer pointed out a pattern we missed.
• It builds trust. The opaque quote-on-request model used elsewhere in the industry is a price-discrimination tool. We'd rather list every number with a visible price and live with that.
• It's genuinely useful. If you're evaluating multiple memorable-number suppliers, score the numbers you're quoted from each against our rubric. You'll see whether their pricing is honest.